Joel Holtrop, deputy chief of the U.S. Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey today both emphatically denied that there was any broad ban on the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques being used to extract natural gas from tight shale formations nationwide.

“The U.S. Forest Service has no policy nor do we have any plans to develop any policy to ban horizontal drilling and associated hydraulic fracturing,” Holtrop told two Natural Resources and Agriculture subcommittees.

“There is no ban on directional drilling,” Abbey insisted. “The BLM is committed to encouraging responsible energy development on the public lands.”

Republicans who organized the hearing drew their concerns from the U.S. Forest Service’s recent decision to propose barring horizontal drilling in some areas of the George Washington National Forest in Virginia and West Virginia as part of a draft plan for the territory. That same draft plan, available for public comments through Sept. 21, also proposes alternative approaches that would allow horizontal drilling in the forest.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., said the draft plan raises the “prospect of complete bans on horizontal drilling on public lands.”

And Lee Fuller, vice president of government relations for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said the plan “presents a far larger issue: the reluctance of the current administration to support the development of the full spectrum of American resources.”

But Democrats accused Republicans of trying to score political points with what Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., said was “blowing an issue far out of proportion.”

And Holtrop emphasized that the draft plan for George Washington National Forest was unique to that area.

“This plan is place-specific, based on the particular circumstances of the George Washington National Forest and does not represent a broader policy with regard to hydraulic fracturing,” Holtrop said. “There are no Forest Service discusions or efforts under way to develop a national policy to ban horizontal drilling.”

Holtrop added:

“On the contrary, the administration believes that the recent technological advances that have allowed industry to access abundant resources of natural gas . . . provides tremendous benefits to the country as long as it is done in a way that protects the public health and environment.”